Bred and owned by Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum and trained by Dick Hern in West Isley, Berskhire, Unfuwain was a relatively lightly-raced son of Northern Dancer who, between September, 1987 and May, 1989, won six of his ten races.
A winner of the Haynes, Hanson and Clark Conditions Stakes, over a mile, at Newbury as a juvenile, Unfuwain made his three-year-old debut in the Listed Warren Stakes, over a mile-and-a-half, at Epsom in April, 1988. He won easily, by 15 lengths, and did so again, by 8 lengths, in the Group 3 Chester Vase the following month. Consequently, he was sent off 9/2 second favourite for the Derby at Epsom. However, forsaken by stable jockey Willie Carson – who preferred 6/1 third favourite Minster Son, whom he had bred himself – Unfuwain could finish only seventh, beaten 7 lengths, under Steve Cauthen.
Nevertheless, reunited with Carson in the Group Two Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket a month later, Unfuwain, once again, won unchallenged by 15 lengths. Unfuwain subsequently finished second in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot and fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp; at the end of his three-year-old campaign he was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 130. Unfuwain returned to training as a four-year-old, winning both starts – the Group Three John Porter Stakes at Newbury in April and the Group Two Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket in May, both at odds-on – before being retired to stud.